''Cool it Carol!'' is a 1970 British

sex comedy Sex comedy, erotic comedy or more broadly sexual comedy is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sex comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary works such ...

-drama film directed and produced by Pete Walker, starring

Robin Askwith Robin Mark Askwith (born 12 October 1950) is an English actor and singer who has appeared in a number of film, television and stage productions. Making his film debut as Keating in the film '' if....'' (1968), a role he would reprise in ''Brita ...

and Janet Lynn. It was released in the US as ''Dirtiest Girl I Ever Met''.

Plot

The cautionary tale of Joe and Carol, a couple of youngsters who leave the " sticks" behind and journey to

Swinging London The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London as its centre. It saw a flourishing in art, mus ...

in search of fame and fortune. Joe fails to find employment in the big city, but Carol enrols as a fashion model. As the naïve couple begin to enjoy the night life of London they are drawn ever deeper into a world of pornography, drugs and prostitution.

Cast

- Joe Sickles * Janet Lynn - Carol Thatcher *

Jess Conrad Jess Conrad (born Gerald Arthur James; 24 February 1936) is an English stage and screen actor and singer. As a boy he was nicknamed "Jesse" after American outlaw Jesse James; as there was already an actor named "Gerald James" in Actors' Equity, a ...

- Jonathan *

Stubby Kaye Bernard Solomon Kotzin (November 11, 1918 – December 14, 1997), known as Stubby Kaye, was an American actor, comedian, vaudevillian, and singer, known for his appearances on Broadway and in film musicals. Kaye originated the roles of Nicely-Ni ...

- Rod Strangeways * Derek Aylward - Tommy Sanders * Kenneth Hendel - Pimp * Stephen Bradley - Terry * Harry Baird - Benny Gray *

Chris Sandford Christopher Duke Sandford (born 6 June 1939) is a British actor. He has appeared in more than fifty films since 1956. He also worked in the music business for a spell in the 1960s as a both a singer, and radio DJ, before returning to the acti ...

- David Thing * Peter Elliott - Philip Stanton *

Claire Gordon Claire Gordon (16 January 1941 – 13 April 2015) was an English film actress and comedian known for leading and cameo roles in many British films from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, and for working with most of the television comedy stars of ...

- Samantha * Pete Murray - (credited as Peter Murray) Himself *

Eric Barker Eric Leslie Barker (12 February 1912 – 1 June 1990) was an English comedy actor. He is most remembered for his roles in the popular British ''Carry On'' films, although he only appeared in the early films in the series, apart from returning f ...

- Signalman *

Pearl Hackney Pearl Hackney (28 October 1916 – 18 September 2009) was a British actress and the wife of comic actor Eric Barker. She was born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, but spent much of her early life in Liverpool, Lancashire (now Merseyside). A ...

- Mother *

Martin Wyldeck Martin Wyldeck (11 January 1914 – 29 April 1988) was an English actor who played a wide range of parts over many years on stage, screen and TV. He also appeared in the first episode of the TV series '' Fawlty Towers'', as Sir Richard Morri ...

- Father

Production

According to the opening credits, "this story is true but actual names and places are fictitious"; the film being apparently inspired by a tabloid article the director read in the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...

''.

Filming locations

The film was shot on location in the villages of

Northiam Northiam is a village and civil parish in the Rother district, in East Sussex, England, 13 miles (21 km) north of Hastings in the valley of the River Rother. The A28 road to Canterbury and Hastings passes through it. Governance Northiam ...

and

Bodiam Bodiam () is a small village and civil parish in the Rother District of East Sussex, England. It lies in the valley of the River Rother, near to the villages of Sandhurst and Ewhurst Green. The MP of the local UK Parliament constituency is Hu ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Music

The music was composed and conducted by

Cyril Ornadel Cyril Ornadel (2 December 192422 June 2011) was a British conductor, songwriter and composer, chiefly in musical theatre. He worked regularly with David Croft, the television writer, director and producer, as well as Norman Newell and Hal Sh ...

Release

Critical response

*'DVD Drive-in' wrote, "it’s no great film by any means, but it’s an enjoyable time capsule romp worth checking out." *'lightsfade.co.uk' wrote, "if you're a fan of late 60's nostalgia then there's a lot of prime material here. The world of "Cool it Carol" returns us to an era when petrol stations looked both picturesque and romantic, trains looked clean and ran on time, antique red buses were in abundance alongside phlegmatic cab drivers (some things never change)...With chunks of wonderfully cheesy dialogue, "Cool it Carol" is a kitsch delight." *'moviesaboutgirls.com' called the film "glum, gray, and depressive." *'Cinedelica' wrote, "compared to a movie like

Smashing Time ''Smashing Time'' is a 1967 British satirical comedy film starring Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave. It is a satire on the 1960s media-influenced phenomenon of ''Swinging London''. It was written by George Melly and directed by Desmond Davis. ...

, Cool It Carol! is probably the more realistic portrayal of the swinging London dream. But we're still in the land of the exploitation flick, so don't expect

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (''Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessne ...

-like realism." *Pablo Kjolseth writes in '

TCM.com Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...

', "in reflecting on scenes that stood out as memorable, my vote goes for the disturbing and eerie tight shots (seen more than once) of old men licking their dry lips with lusty tongues at the sight of nude, young women. These brief moments introduce an ominous, unpredictable, claustrophobic and icky energy into an otherwise languid story. An early indication, perhaps, that Walker's talents would be best served in a different genre."

Home media

External links

References

{{Pete Walker 1970 films 1970 comedy-drama films 1970 independent films 1970s sex comedy films British comedy-drama films British independent films British sex comedy films 1970s English-language films Films about pornography Films about prostitution in the United Kingdom Films directed by Pete Walker Films set in London 1970s British films